TMA premises swallowed by filth

It is sad when the guard, under whose jurisdiction a responsibility has been entrusted, turns around to commit the same iniquity upon which society frowns.

This scenario is exactly what could best be described as the attitude of the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA), which is charged with the responsibility of managing sanitation in the Tema Metropolis.

As if it is not enough, that their inability to keep the sanitation problem, which has become a topical issue in the day-to-day discussions of residents in the Metropolis, under control, they have now allowed filth to take over their own backyard.

In one of the flower beds of the forecourt of the Assembly, is a heap of garbage, which normally resides there for a period of between three to four days in a week.

Over the last few months, the Tema File has been monitoring this particular trend of affairs, to establish what exactly is going on, but indications on the ground point to the fact that this heap of garbage, irrespective of how small it may be, has become a regular feature of the Assembly's premises.

Also, just across the street, in front of TMA, along the Site One (1) street, opposite the Community Five (5) taxi station, is another heap, which has become a huge problem for residents of the area.

According to some of the residents, who spoke to the paper on condition of anonymity, the TMA charges a fee of between GH¢4 to 5 a month from them, to enable the assembly contract trucks to collect the refuse they make in their homes at least twice a week, yet they don't come.

“Since we also do not have any other place to dump our refuse, we continue to plunk it here, hence the situation.

“Indeed the situation very much disturbs us, however, in the absence of nothing, we are just trying to make do with what we have available,” one of the residents in the area told the paper.

Meanwhile, residents in the Tema Metropolis are complaining about the way and manner filth they generate in their homes is taking over the streets, and other corners of the Metropolis.

While a few of them, who can afford, have worked out an agreement with ZoomLion to empty their containers for them on a regular basis for a fee, others say they simply cannot afford to pay money to the TMA monthly for the collection their refuse, and again contract ZoomLion to pick up their refuse containers regularly.

They claim it is expensive, and would drain their pockets, saying so far as the TMA takes money from them monthly, they should execute their responsibility duly.